Scuderia AlphaTauri has confirmed New Zealander Liam Lawson will take part in Free Practice 1 at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend.
The Formula 2 race winner will step into the car typically occupied by Pierre Gasly for the 60-minute session on Friday.
Teams this year must, on two occasions, field a driver in Free Practice 1 who has made less than two grand prix starts.
Lawson drove for Scuderia AlphaTauri at last year’s end-of-season test in Abu Dhabi and is this year competing in Formula 2.
“Super excited to say I will be doing my first FP1 this weekend in Spa,” he said.
“I honestly couldn’t think of a better place to do it, there’s going to be a very exciting feeling historic track and a place that I’ve always enjoyed driving certain Formula 1 car is going to be incredible.
Secure your spot today.
“I’ve been doing a lot of sim work over the year as well sort of leading up to this, so I think that the prep’s been really, really good.
“Obviously I had my first outing last year in December and since then, honestly, I’ve been dying to get back in the car so yeah, really, really excited.”
The 20-year-old is part of the Red Bull driver academy and is arguably first in line in that programme.
In July, Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner advised Lawson will step into Max Verstappen’s car for an Free Practice 1 session at some point this season.
Juri Vips completed Free Practice 1 at the Spanish Grand Prix in place of Sergio Perez only to subsequently lose his position in the squad after uttering a racial slur online.
Ahead of this weekend, Lawson has been at Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Faenza base to complete a seat fitting.
“Did my seat today, nailed it first try, which is not normal for me,” he said.
“Just excited to get going. The last time I did the seat fits, end of last year, I messed up the first one; wasn’t quite perfect, we had to change a few things.
“Normally I’m quite a perfectionist when it comes to seats, I have a bit of OCD on how symmetrical it needs to be, and today for the first time ever that was perfectly symmetrical.”
Elsewhere, Haas announced Antonio Giovinazzi will drive Free Practice 1 sessions at the Italian and United States Grands Prix.
It was expected that Oscar Piastri was to steer the Alpine at two sessions too, though with uncertainty surrounding his future with the operation a question mark now hangs over that.
However, next in the queue at Alpine is another Australian, Jack Doohan, who is capable of stepping into the car if needed.
Discussion about this post